Trey Ratcliff/Flickr Creative Commons
San Antonio sits just south of Right In The Middle Of, Texas on I-10 and it is a sprawling modern city surrounded by Air Force bases and home to a pretty well known Professional Basketball Team. What some of y’all may not know is that is also home to 5 surviving Missions from Texas’ days as a Spanish then Mexican colony. One of those Missions is world famous through story, myth, legend, and of course film.
The Alamo’s real name is San Antonio de Valero and was founded in the early 1700’s as a. Of course it is best known as the site of the Battle of the Alamo in 1836 where the Texian defenders lost a 13 day siege to Mexican President and General Santa Anna. After Texas became a republic and then joined the United States, the US Army as well as the Confederate Army briefly, used the Alamo as a storehouse until the 1870’s. But it wasn’t until the 1890’s that any thoughts of preservation as a historical monument arose. It was preserved by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas preserved the Alamo and continue after 100 years to be the stewards of that Mission.
The next oldest surviving San Antonio Mission is San Jose. Built in the 1720’s, San Juan was restored in the 1930’s by the WPA and is now part of the National Park Service. Like the other Missions in the area, San Juan’s primary focus was on converting local Native Americans to Catholicism as well as creating a marketplace for trade. It was the largest Mission in the area and because of that had the nickname “Queen of Missions”.
San Juan Capistrano was built later than the Missions de Valero and San Jose, and was never quite finished. San Juan started out life in east Texas, but was moved to the banks of the San Antonio River at the end of the 1720’s. It was an agricultural center with a granary included as part of the complex. Due to it’s agricultural as well as economic importance, it survived longer than some other Missions in the state because it was able to trade surplus goods as far east as Louisiana, and as far south as Mexico.
Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purisima Concepcion de Acuña, better known as simply “Concepcion” is considered by many to be the most beautiful of the 5 surviving San Antonio Missions. Ironically enough, she is also the oldest unrestored stone church in North America. Built in the early 1730’s Concepcion was painted in colorful patterns and some of the original frescos are still visible inside.
Mission San Fransisco de la Espada, now known as “Espada” was another east Texas Mission moved to the San Antonio area in the early 1730’s. The church was finished in 1756, and is considered one of the most beautiful chapels of the remaining Missions surviving throughout Texas.
San Antonio is on I-10 is you’re traveling east/west, or I-35 if you’re traveling south, and I-37 if you’re coming up from the south. Before you hit the road, please come say howdy to us at PPL Motorhomes.com for all your parts and accessories!